Category: Food

Detox, Day 3

The following is discussion of Day 3 of my 10-day detox.  To begin with Day 1, click here.

Day 3 sucked, but not as badly as day two.

I will now offer a warning – there is going to be discussion of pooping below.  It won’t be too graphic or anything, but we’re going to talk about what happens in the bathroom.  If I’m going to talk about the detox and its impacts on the body, that has to be fair game.

OK – end of warning.

The sucking, again, didn’t have much to do with not being able to eat.  I’m hungry, of course, but then again I’m always hungry.  This is not one of those starving hungers that crowds out thought of anything other than a cheeseburger, though – merely the standard low-level grumbling normal when you live your life in a constant state of hunger.

Breakfast was oatmeal with raisins and a banana, and an apple.  Snacks were again almonds and apples.  Lunch was leftover vegetarian chili over potatoes, which is awesome.  Dinner was the last of the ratatouille and a bowl of minestrone that I made the night before.  The food was good, and filling, and generally satisfying.  There was the issue of the two 1 scoop shakes again, but I choked those down well enough.  Overall, the food isn’t an issue.

The headaches also subsided.  There was a little rumble just before lunch, but it didn’t last long.  I’m going to have to make a decision after this is all over how and whether I even want to re-introduce caffeine.  I’m not convinced it is bad, and as a runner I also know the, um, restorative, effects of a cup of coffee before a run.  However, anything that can make you feel like that after only one day of not having it deserves a level of thoughtfulness that I’m unaccustomed to providing to my morning beverage.  We’ll see.

(This paragraph is the pooping part.  Skip at will.) Foul things happened in the bathroom, though. I’m going to try to be descriptive but not graphic here … after a lot of gas and rumbling, there was a mid-morning go that was impressive and left me feeling measurably better.  It did not, however, stop the gas – which was pretty constant for the rest of the day.  I wound up spending much more time than I’d like on the toilet in the afternoon, though it is difficult to describe.  This wasn’t diarrhea exactly, but lets just say that it was impossible to trust a fart.  Things settled down through the evening but never felt truly calm.

If we’re scoring, by the way, that’s one day hammered by crushing headaches and nausea, one day worried about being hammered by crushing headaches and nausea, and one day on and off the toilet and worried about shitting my pants.  This is not a good score, and if this is valuable at all I’m going to wind up feeling GREAT next week.

A few odds and ends:

  • This is almost certainly the longest I’ve ever gone without meat since I was a baby.  I’ve probably had several caffeine droughts, but not meat.  Interesting.  I miss it a bit, though not as much as I’d have thought.  As I’ve said – I’ll never be a vegetarian, but this does cause me know that I can rethink things on a meal-by-meal basis.
  • I’ve intended to get up for the last two days to run and haven’t been able to drag myself out.  I think I’m scared of it, if I’m honest.  I know that it won’t feel great for awhile, and I’m worried that my foot / ankle issue will flare back up and bring the discouragement with it.  This is something I’m going to have to power through, but it is there.
  • Day 4 begins the hard part of this process.  Nuts, seeds, grains are all out – just vegetables, fruits, and legumes … and now two full shakes, with 2 scoops of the powder.  Days 5, 6, and 7 are down to basically leafy greens, an apple or two, and 4 shakes a day.  I’m nervous about this, because I’m going to be starving and I also know that starving myself like that isn’t really necessary.  But if I’m going to do this I’m going to do this … and it is only 3 days.  We’ll call it an experiment – not quite “Super Size Me” but in that category.

If you had the under on three days, you lost.  See you tomorrow.

Day 4 is available to read here.

Detox, Day 2

The following is discussion of Day 2 of my 10-day detox.  To begin with Day 1, click here.

The theory of a detox, as given to me by my guy, goes like this:

There are toxins everywhere.  They are in the air we breathe and in the food we eat.  They are in the casings of the pills we take (for supplements, I guess) and in the paint on the walls we lick.  Everywhere.  The toxins consist of many things – heavy metals are an example – but the broad definition is anything that might make you sick. The liver acts as a big filter for these toxins, keeping them from getting into our bloodstreams.  Toxins, however, are fat soluble … and extra toxins that the liver doesn’t handle get stored in our fat cells, as well as in the liver.  Everybody should detox periodically (he recommends spring and fall), but in particular people getting ready to lose weight must do this.  As we lose weight, the fat cells shrink and wind up releasing some of the toxins that they are carrying and unleashing them on our livers.  The liver, meanwhile, is busy with the day-to-day business of filtering toxins and is not going to be able to keep up with the onslaught.  The result is that we get sick.  The best way to keep from getting sick is to detoxify the liver ahead of time and prepare it for the toxic hordes.

Some of this makes sense to me.  The liver IS basically a filter, and it is a regenerative organ … so if it is damaged or dirty and you clean it up it will heal itself.  And there are toxins everywhere, I agree with that statement.  Where I start to get fuzzy is this idea that losing weight will make you sick.  Frankly, that usually goes the other way.  I recently lost 50 pounds, and I felt like a million dollars.  A million damn dollars.  So I’m not sure I buy the underlying theory.  I also know from a few minutes with the Google that there is no scientific evidence that this detoxification theory, which is quite old, really holds water.  Effects are either not measurable or unrepeatable.

All of this to say – I’m not really in this for the detoxification element of the regimen. Though I’m open to reconsideration of some of this upon completion of the ten days.  In the meantime, I’m using this as a caloric kickstart to get some religion about eating right and tracking my food again.

Day 2 sucked, but not as badly as Day 1.

Again, this wasn’t about the food so much.  My list of available foods constricted, but only marginally – I lost eggs and dairy.  That brings the list of things that are now gone from my diet up to six – caffeine, alcohol, meat, refined sugars, eggs, and dairy.  Coming up I’m going to be losing things like wheat and gluten and even nuts, but for today this is where we are.

And I cheated like hell this morning.  The plan was to eat oatmeal at the cafeteria at work.  Wouldn’t you know, this morning they had farina, not oatmeal.  Not my thing.  So I said screw it and got another veggie omelet, no cheese.  I had two eggs today, which were not approved.  Day two and I’m out of control

Or not so much.  My wife’s response?  “Its not like it was fried chicken.”  Amen.  I married her for a reason.

So I don’t feel guilty about that at all.  Snacks were apples, almonds, and prunes again … though today I got to start having my shakes.  A normal sized shake is two scoops of powder with 8 oz of water, plus a scoop of the optional veggie stuff.  They start us slow, though – today was only two shakes with 1 scoop of powder each (always adding the veggie stuff).  By day five I’ll be drinking 5 2-scoop shakes, but we’ll get there slowly.  And here’s the thing about the shakes – they are awful.  The worst part is that the powder doesn’t really dissolve, so it is a grainy gross blah.  I had asked for original (= neutral) flavored shake and espresso flavored veggie stuff, but wound up with strawberry kiwi veggie stuff.  So this is basically gross.

Can’t WAIT until I go two days having basically that and lettuce for food.

Lunch was leftover ratatouille (did I mention that was awesome?), and dinner was a vegetarian three-bean chili that turned out really good.  So, from a food perspective, today wasn’t so bad again.

The headache started around lunchtime again.  This time it wasn’t so debilitating, though, and there were stretches through the afternoon where it really wasn’t there at all.  I also made it a point to take my big vitamin pills right after food, and so I avoided the nausea that I experienced yesterday.  I’m thinking tomorrow or the next day I’ll be over the caffeine withdrawal and be able to move on.

So day two was not a bust, and I’m still full-speed ahead for day three.  I made a minestrone soup tonight using a suggested recipe, and that will be dinner tomorrow … it looks like it will be good.  Tomorrow we lose wheat and gluten, then Thursday we’re down to vegetables, fruits, and legumes.  Starting Friday the bottom falls out.

As I said yesterday – buckle up, because we’re riding.

Day 3 can be found here

Detox, Day 1

So, as mentioned several times, I went to see a chiropractor / sports injury guy for the issue in my foot.  He’s been helpful, and I expect to be running again by the end of the week. A pretty good outcome, though I think this was as much shoe related as anything.

My guy is also a nutritionist.  Now, I’m a big proponent of eating food.  Real food.  I don’t always make good choices about what food I eat (though I know how), and I often make poor choices about how much food I eat – that’s the hard part.  The key to this, though, is food.  Real, chew it up and get your calories and you don’t have to do much to it because we evolved to eat it just like that, food.  In particular, I don’t like having to buy special things like shakes or supplements or juices – I think those are silly, and I don’t think they’re necessary outside of specific and relatively rare medical needs.

So, my nutritionist guy did not surprise me and immediately wanted to do a nutritional consult – including daily menu planning if only I’ll pay for it – and a detox. We did a BIA (35% body fat – yuck) and starting talking it through.

In particular, I’m unconvinced about detox.  And it isn’t horribly cheap – though in the end it won’t be that much.  So my initial thought was no – just, no.  But I talked to him about what it was he was recommending and I sort of changed my mind.  Sort of.

Yesterday was day one of a ten day detox program.  I have “medical food” shakes and a vitamin supplement.  I have lists of foods that are approved to eat on each day.  That list excludes all caffeine, alcohol, meat, and refined sugar and gets smaller and smaller through day seven, which is restricted to basically leafy green vegetables and the shakes / supplements.  Beginning on day eight the list begins to grow until day ten matches day one.  Then, in terms of my guy’s practice, I’d transition over to his menu planning and additional supplements.  The base detox, including the plan and supplements for 10 days, was $110, with an optional $40 veggie/vitamin thing to be mixed in with the shakes.

I decided to do the detox because I need a jump start.  My food choices have been poor, and the weight has been creeping up – enough that I’ve started skipping weigh-ins.  I’m starting to get discouraged about not running, even though that is the right thing to do.  And I need to get myself invested in something in the short-term so I can build momentum for the medium- and long-term.  I actually don’t believe that the “detox” function of this diet has all that much value, and of course this is an unsustainable way to eat long-term.  However, for ten days, it may be exactly what I need.  My intention is to do this for ten days and then get religion about Weight Watchers beginning day eleven.

And so for the next ten days I will be doing updates on the detox.  Daily updates on what I ate, how I felt, what is happening, etc.  Buckle up, because here we go.

Day 1 sucked.

Not because I couldn’t eat.  This was the least restrictive day in terms of food – I had a veggie omelet for breakfast (no cheese), a quinoa salad with sliced avocado for lunch, and a homemade ratatouille over brown rice for dinner that, frankly, is amazing and will make it into my normal cooking rotation.  I had apples, almonds, and prunes for snacks (prunes are legitimately good, by the way).  And so I wasn’t starving.

The headache began building around noon.  I don’t drink a ton of coffee, but I generally have my one travel mug in the morning and then often a diet soda during the day – so I have a caffeine regimen.  And I expected to have some headaches or other “withdrawal” symptoms.  But I didn’t expect what I got.  By the time I got home last night the headache was crushing.  By the time I went to bed it was clouding my vision – it was awful.  And it would have been bad all by itself, but…

Turns out, taking a big multi-vitamin commonly causes nausea.  My morning dose didn’t cause any problems.  My evening dose, coupled with the headache, made me want to vomit from the time I took it until I went to sleep.

I felt like ass.  Total ass.

And I told my wife that if I vomited, or if I didn’t feel remarkably better in the morning, I was going to stop.  After day one.  And to hell with the sunk costs.  And then I went to sleep.

So what were my takeaways from day one?  They weren’t all negative:

  • Food doesn’t need meat or dairy to be delicious.  The ratatouille is seriously one of the better things I’ve had in awhile.  I will need to start exploring some of these vegetarian and vegan recipes – the food is legitimately good and I can start feeling better about the environmental impact, etc.  I won’t ever be full-blown vegetarian, but I can get better about this.
  • Caffeine is no joke.  My normal daily intake is unremarkable and I’ve taken it for granted for some time.  After only one day (one day!) of not having caffeine I was out for the count.  Don’t underestimate this as a drug – it is potent.  I’m beginning to think about whether I want to add it back in as a daily thing at all after all of this.
  • So far, not starving.  We’ll see how long that lasts.

Day 2 tomorrow.  Fun!

Day 2 can be found here

Haiku (plural)

Jumping puddles and

Dodging crashes of thunder

Running in the rain

————————————

A daunting menu

Then I hear myself saying

“I’ll take fried chicken”

.

For the Weekly Writing Challenge

The Call

For the better part of an afternoon, he pretended he couldn’t hear them.  After several hours of near torture he strapped on his shoes and tried a short run.  He heard them, even over the miles; they never stopped calling.

“Damn cookies,” he sighed on his way to the kitchen.

 

 

For the Weekly Writing Challenge

On Food and Eating

Something dawned on me recently.  I have spent so much time on this blog talking about running that I have neglected to talk about an equally important – and much more difficult – topic.

Let’s talk about food.

So, I want to get a couple of things out of the way.  First – I love food.  Everything about it.  Second – I am not a big fan of discussion about food addiction.  As a chronic over-eater, this is a concept that I simply don’t understand.  And not because it isn’t real, just that everybody is addicted to food.  In the most literal way, we are all addicted to food.  We must eat to live – “addiction” doesn’t mean anything in this context.

Even an addiction to certain types of food, to me, is spurious.  If I am addicted to pizza, and have pizza at least once a day … well, that’s called nourishing my body.  Poorly, maybe, but I have to eat and I could survive on pizza for a relatively long life.  Chocolate, sweets, etc., fall into this same physical camp.  Some of us are capable of overcoming special cravings better than others, though I’d argue that those cravings are as much mental as they are physical.

Now this is not to say that there aren’t “addictions” to deal with, just that I don’t think of those as addictions to food.  Perhaps I can illustrate.

The way I have always articulated it is that everybody has their thing, that feeling they chase, often to their detriment.  For some people, that thing is drugs and for some it is alcohol.  Others turn to sex or gambling … or even positive things, like people laughing while you are on stage or singing along to your song.  But I believe everybody has a thing.  So you know that feeling you get when you over-eat?  How your belly feels like it is stretching and hurting, and how you can sit down in a chair and go into a food coma and pass out?

Yeah – that’s my thing.

food coma

That has been my thing for years.  Eventually I reached a point where I sought that feeling out after every meal.  If I didn’t have that feeling, it meant that I hadn’t eaten enough.  People would ask me if I was hungry, and my response every time was that it had absolutely nothing to do with hungry … let’s eat.  The goal was to eat enough to put me in a food coma and pass out.

When I look back at my childhood, I can see how that attitude toward food grew.  I don’t blame anybody or anything, but life in the culture I grew up in pretty much revolved around food.  We gathered over meals.  The meal wasn’t ancillary to the gathering; we were not eating because we had to eat.  The meal was (is) the point.  We ate together and cooked together.  We grew gardens together, and we hunted and fished together.   Even our hobbies were about procuring food.  And being able to eat a lot was in some ways a badge of honor.

I have a relationship with food that runs deep, much deeper than mere fuel.  And I like all kinds of food – from the very healthy all the way down to McDonald’s.  I eat good food and I eat shit.  I get plenty of the right vitamins and minerals, but my caloric intake at its highest probably would have made a dietician blush.  I love the ceremony of a good meal – the tasting of the wine, the multiple courses, the conversation.   I know people who view food as a fuel.  They can eat without regard to taste or setting or anything else.  Food, for them, is somewhat like gasoline for a car, and very little else.  And I feel both pity and deep envy for those people.  Pity because food brings so much joy to my life; envy because food brings so much tension to my life.

I’m not sure when I began to realize that there was a problem.  My family will tell a story that when I was a teenager we were limited to one bowl of cereal in the morning so we wouldn’t eat the whole box in one sitting.  I got around that by using a mixing bowl as my cereal bowl.   Even then I probably knew something wasn’t just right … but I was chasing a feeling, you know?

I would have used it if I'd had access...
I would have used it if I’d had access…

Once I quit being athletic-ish in high school my body began its predictable expansion.  I was never comfortable with my body (likely at this point won’t ever really be), but I never got so uncomfortable that I stopped eating.  Probably the first time I really acknowledged an issue was when I was in business school and hit about 290 (I’m right at 6’ tall).  I got there that time by, for example, eating bags of Oreos for dinner regularly.  A whole bag at a time.  When I realized that I was out of control, I got a classmate that worked out to help me, and I lost about 40 pounds.  But that was through a diet, which is not a solution … diets are only tools.  At that point I committed to losing weight, not changing how I did things.

Interestingly, that effort was coupled with a physical goal.  I decided when I started the process that time that I was going to do a 160 mile backpacking trip on the Ozark Highlands Trail.  And that goal worked – I made the investment in the equipment and had a goal to march toward.  I would up doing over 80 miles of that trip before heavy rains and high rivers forced me off the trail.  But I was proud, and I’d done it.  And then I let it go, and my weight started a long slow creep.

That backpacking trip was in December of 2006, and I weighed about 260 pounds.  In April of 2012, when I finally realized I was completely out of control again, I hit 327.  67 pounds in 6 years – 11 pounds a year, that’s it.

Ozark Highland Trailhead, December, 2006, about 260lbs
Ozark Highland Trailhead, December, 2006, about 260lbs

Now, this time I was (and am) determined to make some permanent changes – but I have a problem.  You see, I love food so much that I’m unwilling to simply give up most of the things I like to eat.  If being thin(ner) means not eating pizza, or hamburgers, or cookies, or a whole list of things … if I can’t occasionally have those things … then to hell with that, I’ll just be fat.

And I mean that.  I’m not going to live my whole life feeling guilty because every now and then I want to eat some fried chicken.  So that means I have to learn how to eat portions that won’t choke a horse, and replace most of my food with “fuel” and plan ahead for those times when I’m going to eat whatever I want.   Learning how to get, and keep, my calories down at a reasonable level is the absolute key, I’m convinced, to meeting my physical goals.

That’s why I chose WeightWatchers for my program.   WW puts nothing off-limits, but teaches you how all of those things impact your daily intake and hunger.  WW worked for me immediately, and when I actually keep track of what I’m eating, it works for me still.  Every time.

People still occasionally ask me if I’m hungry.  And the answer to that question, of course, is that it has nothing to do with hungry.  I live my life in a constant state of hunger.  But I’ve learned what an appropriate amount of food is, and I’ll continue the struggle to keep my intake there.  I’ve coupled this effort with physical goals as well, and maybe one day I will be able to replace that food coma feeling with a runner’s high as my “thing”.

Maybe, maybe not.  In the meantime – eat well, and keep running.

Must be a runner's high
Must be a runner’s high

7 Things to Remember When Traveling

This week I had a quick trip down to Atlanta for a business meeting.  Left on Tuesday afternoon, came back on Wednesday afternoon.  Traveling tends to completely hose up my weekly food and running routine, though I’m starting to notice some patterns. Without further ado, here are seven things that it is important to remember when traveling:

#1 – Calories consumed in an airport count. So one of the associations that I’ve always had with traveling is an all-bets-are-off mentality about food (though, to be fair, that was a common mentality whether I was traveling or not).   This was both about quantity (hey – gotta fuel up so I can sit on this airplane or in this car!) and quality (immediate access to beef jerky and Dr. Pepper and cheese danishes?  Umm, OK!).  I’m not sure where that association came from, but as far back as I can remember it has been there.  It is as though travel food magically is different than “regular” food. So, yeah … it is not.  Crappy food is still crappy food.  And too much of it is still too much of it.  Walk away from the fried chicken.

This is still fried chicken. Tasty, glorious fried chicken.
This is still fried chicken. Tasty, glorious fried chicken.

#2 – Water is your friend. We hear that airplanes dehydrate us all the time.  We hear it so much that we might be tempted to ignore it, or block the message. Yeah – don’t do that. Because dehydration on airplanes is real.  That little thing that you twist to get the cool air blowing on top of your head?  That thing is blowing almost perfectly dry air that is nearly guaranteed to make your skin itchy, chap your lips on the spot, and drive you to extreme thirst.  And ginger ale, while great on airplanes, doesn’t do the rehydration thing enough. Drink your water.

#3 – Bring your running shoes.  They are a pain in the ass to pack.  And you might wind up not using them while you are there because of unforeseen timing pressures.   But if you don’t bring them, you are guaranteed to miss a workout.  Guaranteed.  Just knowing that I’d have to justify having brought the damn things is sometimes enough to get me to get up and go for a run.  Take your shoes – you’ll be better for it.

#4 – Plan accordingly for treadmill access. Whichever hotel you’re at almost certainly has a fitness center.  Most of them that I’ve seen have a large stability ball, a weight-machine-system thing, an elliptical or two, and at most 4 or 5 treadmills.  Some only have 2 or 3 treadmills.  Now, because you were traveling and didn’t want to pack anything more than shoes, socks, shorts, & shirt, you aren’t geared up to run outside.  You’re also in unfamiliar territory and may not want to risk getting lost.  So you plan on getting up and hitting the treadmill for those morning miles. You … and everybody else in the hotel. Rush hour (roughly 6am to 8am) at the hotel fitness center is almost certainly going to be busy.  And unless you are OK with the elliptical or something different, you may be disappointed by treadmill access.  If possible, plan to go during a strange time (evening, middle of the day, etc.) or get there earlier than you normally would. Also – treadmills suck.

Soul crushing, isn't it? I hurt just looking at it...
Soul crushing, isn’t it? I hurt just looking at it…

#5 – There will be doughnuts. When people are hosting a meeting that includes out-of-town guests, they naturally want to be seen as hospitable and accommodating.  They want to be good friendly hosts.  And for whatever reason, that usually means doughnuts.  Plates and plates of doughnuts. They’re going to look yummy.  And let’s face it – they’re going to BE yummy.  There are several ways to deal with this – politely eat half of one, or even a whole one that you considered in your broader day’s meal plan, or claim you’re diabetic or whatever.  But you’d better have a plan for how you’re going to deal with that glorious plate of doughnuts, or it is going to deal with you.

Doesn't it look yummy?
Doesn’t it look yummy?

#6 – Shit happens. So on my trip this week, the travel gods were not with me.  They chose yesterday to get the pound of flesh they were owed for a largely uneventful travel season for me.  And that meant, for a large list of reasons, I was stuck looking for dinner in suburban Atlanta at roughly 11pm on Tuesday night.  And I was unable to resist the siren call of the black letters in the yellow boxes.

Picture taken at 10:49pm in Duluth, Georgia. True story.
Picture taken at 10:49pm in Duluth, Georgia. True story.

Yep – Waffle House. And I’m just going to straight-up tell you like it is … my triple order of hash browns (scattered, smothered, and covered) was glorious. Glorious. And I don’t feel guilty. However…

#7 – If you know that kind of thing is likely to happen, plan accordingly the rest of the week. Yeah – I knew that was likely to happen.  So I’ve mostly planned accordingly.  But you DO have to plan accordingly, because otherwise the whole thing will come off the rails.   How do you stay on plan and strategy when you travel?

New Year’s Not Resolutions

One thing I’ve always considered interesting is how polarizing the discussion of New Year’s Resolutions becomes.  On one side, you’ve got those that make them, or have made them.  They use the New Year as a fresh start – and they do so with varying levels of success.  They invade gyms for two or three weeks … and often, and usually, go home.  Sometimes, though, they break through … and it was a New Year’s Resolution that started it.

Then you’ve got the other side.  The folks that not only don’t “do” New Year’s Resolutions, but they look down on those that do.  Like this quote:  “New Years resolutions are for the weak…if you live life being the best person you can be EVERY day, then you will have no reason to make yourself better one day out of the year!”  Or this tweet from The Oatmeal:

Now – I lean toward agreeing with the latter … if you do it right, you won’t need a resolution.  But, see, it isn’t black and white, and it isn’t that easy.  I’ve seen resolutions work – my Dad finally quit a 3-pack a day habit with a New Year’s Resolution.  It was a reason, maybe it was an excuse, but it did it.  Sometimes a resolution doesn’t work and is annoying – but sometimes it is able to provide that final push over the line.

So I don’t judge.  I don’t really make resolutions, but I don’t judge.

Last year, on New Year’s Day, I went for a 3.1 mile run – I didn’t run a formal race, but I went out and did that.  And while it wasn’t a resolution, it was the kick I needed to focus on a goal that had already been made.  And so it worked like a resolution, I guess.  And what made it all work was that the goals had been set.

And so this year, I’m going to articulate some goals.  Not resolutions, exactly … but this is what I’m working toward in 2014.

Good luck in the coming year!  May your goals be challenging but achievable, and may they provide you with a beacon to march toward.

Running:

1,000 miles

At least one race or running event every month

Finish the marathon … and not let it scare me from bigger goals

Nutrition:

Weight Watchers.  Every day.  It works.

Water.  Consistently. Much more water.

Keep the bacon, egg, & cheese sandwich to Friday morning only … but drink a leaded Dr. Pepper with it.

Home:

Take my son camping.  In such a way that he’ll want to go again.

Give my wife at least one day a month, every month, that’s just hers.

Cook more.  I love it, but didn’t make it a priority this year.  Change that.

Career:

Spend time, every day, making & revising my things-to-do list.

Two contacts a month.  I hate “networking,” but it is just a reality.

Give my team Christmas presents.

Other:

Minimum of two blog entries per week through March.  Up to four by the end of the year.  Make the blog work.

One tweet per day.  Every day.  And try to make it meaningful.

Get the basement finished.  All the way.

2013 Year-in-Review

2013 was a good year for me.

In November of 2012, I decided I was going to start running … and I made a handful of halting little tries.  On and off throughout December, mostly walking, I think I wound up with 18 total miles in 6 weeks.  But, I had registered for a 5K in March of 2013 and, struggle to move though I might, I made my mind hold on to the goal.

On January 1, 2013, in the middle of the afternoon, I drove to a local trail and ran a bit over a mile-and-a-half out and turned around and ran back – 3.1 miles.  I mention the afternoon because that’s why I was on the trail instead of the road; running in the daytime was something I didn’t do much because I was embarrassed to be seen.  That “baseline 5K” took me 49 minutes and 30 seconds, for a 15:43 / mile pace.

Bronx River Parkway
Bronx River Parkway

But I did it.  And it felt good.  And it made me start thinking that I could do it. And so, on January 3rd, I got up at 5am, bundled up, walked out of the house, and made it about half a mile before the cold drove me back in.  Epic fail.  But I went back out on the 4th, and then the 5th, and then the 6th.  Eventually it became a habit, and then a bunch of goals … and it has since become, if not a passion, at least a hobby.

The rest is history.

In 2013, I went for a run 181 times, for a total of 679.7 miles – an average of 3.75 miles per run.  I ran in 11 races, including a 4K, five 5Ks, two 10Ks, a 15K, a half marathon, and a Ragnar.  I ran races in Central Park in the snow, on the beach in Los Angeles, on the runway of JFK airport in Queens, through the countryside of southeast Tennessee, and down the boardwalk of Virginia Beach.   I’ve done training runs at the beach at the Hamptons on Long Island, down Duke of Glouchester Street in Colonial Williamsburg (dodging horse *ahem* piles the whole way), and in rural Arkansas.   My 5K PR is now 31 minutes and 15 seconds – a full 18 minutes (18 minutes!) faster than that January 1 baseline.

And I lost 38.4 pounds.  I went from an XXL (and sometimes  XXXL) shirt to an XL … 48 inch (and sometimes 50) pants to 42 inch (and sometimes 40).  From the last hole on my belt to the first hole on my  belt.  Well north to well south of 300 pounds.

2014 is going to bring bigger and better things – I’m putting pen to that paper now – but I believe that New Year’s Eve, and this week between Christmas and New Year, is a time to reflect on the past year.  Upon reflection, I’m proud of this one.

How did your year go?

Saturday Weigh In / Long Run

First – the line:

Weight:  273.4

Two Week Gain / (Loss):  (1.8 pounds)

Total Gain / (Loss):  (54 pounds)

Last week was a no-weigh-in week because of the travel for the race, and when you stack that on top of travel I was a bit concerned about this.  This week has been OK, though my mileage was a bit lower than planned (I think I got a bit aggressive with post-event recovery runs) and the food situation is only “meh”.

HOWEVER – that number went in the correct direction, which is fantastic.  I bought a dress shirt today with a neck a full inch smaller than I was wearing a few months ago … and it isn’t even that snug.  I’m legitimately too small for many of my clothes.  And the mileage is getting ready to slowly start ramping up.  So I feel optimistic going into the holidays.

Also – I have lost 54 pounds.  I was walking around with the equivalent of 4 or 5 fat babies strapped to my waist.  And they’re gone.  It’s a remarkable state of affairs.

My long run this morning was scheduled for an easy six miles.  Because I missed a day out of the schedule this week, I extended that a bit and did about 7 ¼.  Overall felt OK – not great, but OK.  No pain, just tired.

Travel again next weekend, but also a 5K next weekend, too.  So much going on.